Korea Iron & Steel Association Collaborates with Seoul City to Introduce Steel Frame Structures in Public Construction

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Soyeon] The Korea Steel Association's Steel Structure Center held a meeting on the 20th with Seoul City to discuss cooperation plans for introducing steel structures in the public construction sector, announcing that this would serve as an opportunity to strengthen industry-academia-research-government collaboration to expand demand for steel structures.

This consultation was initiated after the association proposed to Seoul City the expansion of steel structure adoption. Through the introduction of steel structures, construction will shift from labor-intensive, wet, and on-site methods to technology-driven, dry, and factory-production methods. Over the past two years, 79% of the construction projects ordered by Seoul City's Urban Facilities Infrastructure Headquarters were wet-based, while steel structures accounted for only 2%.

Seoul City selected the relocation project of the Yanggok Wholesale Market as a pilot project to expand steel structure adoption. Meanwhile, the association plans to conduct an economic and eco-friendly analysis study comparing steel structures with other structural types for similar buildings. Upon completion of the evaluation study around October, based on the results, the association will collaborate with the Architectural Institute and the Steel Structure Society to promote paper presentations and briefings on the excellence of steel structures.

Additionally, Seoul City will actively cooperate by sharing the research results to ensure that policies for expanding steel structure adoption are reflected.

Accordingly, the steel industry has agreed to make multifaceted efforts to expand public orders since early this year, and the association plans to form and operate a task force to provide total services for steel structure adoption. POSCO will fully support the related research funding, and other steel manufacturers will actively participate in technical consultations.

Son Jeong-geun, head of the Steel Association, stated, "Amid growing uncertainties in the construction industry due to a declining labor force and the implementation of the 52-hour workweek system, steel structures, which are based on dry and factory production, will serve as an excellent alternative that complements the shortcomings of existing methods." He added, "We hope that applications will expand to various fields such as steel houses and modular construction."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.